Time & Snow
by SashaElizabeth
Summary: Maura is affected deeply by the events of September 13, 2010 when Marino held everyone hostage. Very AU.
1. Chapter 1

**Time & Snow  
Chapter One**

_AN: the characters do not belong to me but to Tess Gerritsen, Janet Tamaro and TNT. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Julio Cortazar's story La noche boca arriba. If you have not read this, I encourage you to do so. It will not give away my plot because it is only an inspiration idea by which I have been fascinated since my first reading of it many years ago, long before R&I existed even in novel form. That said, enjoy my story and tell me what you think! Xoxo_

September 13, 2010  
Boston Police Headquarters

As soon as the smoke cleared, the bodies that littered the sidewalk were strewn about as if a bomb had exploded. Blood was flowing like floodwater after a downpour.

"Jane!" Maura screamed as she tore across the concrete sidewalk and made it to her best friend's side, but was much too late. With choked sobs, Maura stared at the mangled form of her best friend, Jane Rizzoli, lying directly in front of the shooter, Bobby Marino. Her final shot had taken them both and had only begun the rampage that was to come. Even though she knew it was all for naught, she knelt in Jane's blood and tried to save her. It was a loss which Maura was not prepared to face as she wailed in front of Jane until the bullets once again started to fly.

"Jane," Maura whimpered, "I don't want to leave you. Not ever." But she knew that Jane would want her to save herself so she frantically raced to find a place in which to take cover.

She had nowhere to duck, but by some miracle alone, was not hit. She watched in frozen horror as everyone she knew was struck down by Marino's cohorts as they perched on rooftops and on opposite sides of buildings across the street. The explosion of gunfire was unreal and the moans of the dying were everywhere. She watched in a nearly paralyzed and catatonic mode as Korsak went down, then Barry Frost soon after him. The backup officers were next until no one but Maura was left alive and breathing. Upon seeing this, she fell over in a heap of unconsciousness beside the body of her best friend.

When she began to awaken, the air was still flooded with the scent of gunpowder. None of the shooters were anywhere to be found. Footsteps neared her and she tensed as she tried not to move or make a sound. Peering through one eye, Maura saw a man dressed in black, carrying a gun. He strolled the scene as if he was taking a leisurely walk on a sunny fall afternoon in the park. Nevertheless, his demeanor changed as he roughly shoved the bodies into a rolled position with his foot to make certain they were dead. One of the officers groaned in a gurgle of blood as he was turned. The gunman looked down at him and cooly aimed a bullet through his head. The officer twitched once and afterward lay silent.

As he neared Maura, she felt the panic rise in her body. She hoped that her heartbeat could not be heard by the shooter as he surveilled the bodies of Jane and Marino. She closed her eyes fully, but forced them to relax as though in death. Her body slackened to imitate a total loss of muscle control should the steel toe of the assassin's boot prod her side. Suddenly, a shot rang out. Maura was convinced that it had been aimed for her, although she felt no pain or sensation. Only when Maura opened her eyes did she see the still form of the gunman lying dead, just three feet away from her. A fatal crimson wound bled between the eyes, shot in the same place where he had executed the officer a few moments earlier. She still dared not move when running steps echoed through the street as a number of individuals approached. Not knowing to whom the sounds belonged, Maura kept still and continued to play dead. She tried not to flinch at the pierce of ambulance sirens as they pulled to a stop. Through her infinitesimally parted eyelashes, she watched paramedics assess the people lying in the places in which they had died.

A pair of footsteps approached Maura and she felt herself shake even more in terror. She wished they would just get it over with and kill her, if that was their purpose for stopping over her. The gunshot might be painless when compared with this eternal waiting. But, she was very surprised to hear an entirely different exchange.

"Hey, Joey, over here! I think this one's still with us! Maybe it's not too late to get her to the hospital," he shouted.

Paramedics. Not executioners. Maura opened her eyes a crack and saw the paramedic who was looking down at her with concern. No gun. No knife. Yet she remained petrified.

He knelt beside her. "Can you hear me? My name's Mark and I'm a paramedic. I'm not going to hurt you, and neither is my partner, Joey. We're going to take you to the hospital to get you checked out, ok?"

Maura managed the most imperceivable nod, but Mark caught it. "Good. I knew you'd cooperate. You're Dr. Isles, aren't you?"

Another barely visible nod. Joey helped Mark carry her to the ambulance, gently and kindly lying her down on the gurney inside. Once she was out of the autumn sunlight, however, the images of the afternoon crowded into her mind and she screamed a strangled cry at the further touch of the men's hands. There was darkness, complete ebony, tinged with the way Jane's blood had looked streaming down the sidewalk.

Maura started to hyperventilate and writhe on the gurney against the belt wrapped around her middle. It was intended for safety during transport, but, to her, it was an entrapment. She could hear the paramedics' voices as if fifty miles away, imploring her to take slow, deep breaths, announcing that she was going into shock, both physically and emotionally. She felt stings on her arms and hands as needles slid into her veins, while they told her in frantic voices to let the sedatives work. She fought and fought until she felt herself floating up to the ceiling, finally hitting it with the inky oblivion for which she'd longed when the shooting began.


	2. Chapter 2

The characters do not belong to me. Enjoy! X

**Chapter Two**

Maura sat upright in bed with a gasp. She was in darkness, but looked around futilely in the void. As her eyes adjusted slowly to the dim, she was utterly floored to see that she was in her own bedroom!

"How did I get here?" She wondered, head in hands. It was then that she felt the chill in the air. Her cell phone was sitting on her nightstand, and she reached over slowly to pick it up. To her astonishment, it read December 30, 2010.

"December?" Maura questioned. "But it was September just a moment ago, and everyone I cared about is dead."

She slowly ambled out of bed and pulled the heavy aubergine drapes back to reveal what looked like a winter wonderland outside. The entire landscape was coated with cleansing white snow that transformed the most ordinary scene into something lovely. Maura felt the peace of it soothe her battered senses, despite the bloody images she had faced only a few moments before.

She turned back to climb into her overstuffed chair next to the bed when her eyes caught the picture on the dresser. It was a photograph of herself and Frankie at The Dirty Robber with Jane, Korsak and Frost in the background.

Flashes of memory began to pour over her. That picture was eight days old, from the night she and Frankie had revealed their secret romance to the others, and he'd... proposed.

Maura stared down at her left hand, and there it was! The ring from Frankie! How had she not sensed it upon awakening? Every other morning since December 22, she had gazed at it with giddiness as soon as she'd opened her eyes. However, the dream, for that's what it had to be, had distracted from happiness.

She walked back to the bedside table and picked up her phone again. Dialing Jane's number, she felt a slight pounding of her heart as each ring passed by unanswered.

"Maur? What's going on?" A sleepy Jane Rizzoli asked. "It's three-thirty in the morning! You ok?"

Maura realized that she hadn't even looked at the time. "Oh, Jane, I'm so sorry! I had a nightmare and didn't know what time it was," she explained as she squeezed her eyes tightly shut only to see the carnage once again. "I needed to hear your voice," she whispered.

"The same nightmare again?" Jane asked, sympathy in her words. "Marino?"

"Y-yes," Maura stammered. "Everyone was dead. You died and I tried to save you, but there was no way you'd come back," Maura began to cry.

"It's ok, Maura. We didn't die. Frankie and I spent some time in the hospital, but you and Frost and Korsak had minor bumps and bruises. Remember that. We're ok. We're more than ok, we're going to plan your wedding!" Jane sounded hopeful with the last thought. "You need to calm down and take deep breaths," the detective advised.

The words, however, reminded Maura too much of the paramedics in the dream. She continued to cry.

"Would you like me to come over?" Jane offered.

"Please, Jane, yes. If you don't mind. I know it's late," Maura said.

Within a few minutes, Jane had arrived at Maura's house, along with Jo Friday in her arms. Maura smiled at the dog in spite of herself.

Jane climbed into Maura's bed, patting the mattress to her side. "Come in, it's not getting any earlier," she commented.

Maura slid into the other half of the bed and laid her weary head on the pillow. Quiet tears streaked down her cheeks as she sensed Jane so near. Given that Jane had been shot in the rampage and had taken weeks to recover, she didn't like to bring it up, as Jane certainly had to still suffer from the trauma. Sometimes she simply could not help it.

"It was awful," Maura hiccuped. "You were gone!"

"I'm here, Maura. Not gone," the detective said as she rubbed small circles on Maura's back. "Go to sleep. Everything is just fine, I promise."

Maura let herself sleep then, comforted by Jane in presence and word. A soft, relaxing sleep overtook her.


	3. Chapter 3

The characters do not belong to me.

**Chapter Three**

Maura struggled to open her eyes. It felt as if they were weighted down by sandbags or something equally heavy. She must have fallen asleep hard, she reasoned before trying to open them again.

When she succeeded, the images before her sent waves of panic through her body. She wasn't in her own bed, but in a stark hospital room with monitors beeping and tubes and wires attached to her body. Her mother, Constance, was sitting in the bedside chair, appearing as though she had not slept in days.

"Mother?" Maura whispered, even though it made her head pound in agony to move her lips.

Constance put the magazine she'd been idly glancing at back on the table and rushed to her side. "Maura? Thank heavens you're ok," she declared breathily. "It's been four days and we didn't know if you were going to wake up."

"Jane..." Maura felt deflated, knowing the truth before her mother confirmed it.

Constance looked at her daughter with tears in her eyes. "She's gone, Maura. In fact, you're the sole survivor of the shooting."

Maura felt tears gliding over her face. Normally, she would have done whatever necessary to keep from crying in her mother's presence. But this was no ordinary circumstance.

"We almost lost you," Constance continued. "You had a severe concussion and were in shock when the paramedics found you. Once they brought you here, you had an operation to relieve the pressure on your brain. They thought you were... They didn't think you had made it when they first discovered you outside, bleeding on the steps."

So the blood had not been Jane's alone. Something about this fact gave Maura comfort. Even though she would never see Jane again, their blood had mingled as both of their lives were forever altered, one into death and the other back into the sheer loneliness she had finally left behind upon moving to Boston. It was over now, though, and nothing could change that.

The painkillers were making Maura much more open with her mother than she would usually have been, but perhaps it was not a negative effect. Constance seemed to understand. Maura certainly needed someone to trust.

"I had a peculiar dream," she began. "It was December and it was snowing and I had a picture of the night Frankie proposed. He gave me the most beautiful ring. We were happy, you could see it in our smiles," Maura said through her tears. "Genuine happy emotions that any facial coding system would prove real. But no, right?"

Constance, too, had tears in her eyes. She reached for her distraught daughter's hand. "No, my darling, it wasn't real. I always thought you might have liked the Rizzoli boy, but I wasn't sure. Were you dating?"

Maura laughed, a hollow, ironic sound that she knew would never come in its genuine form again. "I don't know! In the dream, we had been, but that wasn't real. If we were, the only two people who would know were Frankie and I. He's dead and I can't remember!"

"You're coming home with me," Constance said, as if deciding on the spot. "Staying here will only prolong your pain. First, you'll convalesce at our family home here, and when you're well enough, we're going away to France."

Maura was typically overjoyed about getting a holiday in France, but she felt torn between staying in Boston despite the memories of her fallen friends, or perhaps because of them, and leaving permanently. Her mind wasn't lucid enough, due to the concussion and the drugs in her system, to make a difficult choice for herself. Therefore, she said nothing, a silent affirmation.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up by doctors and nurses rushing in and out, checking on their head trauma patient. As evening fell, Constance forbade the television to be turned on in the room, as the news was still covering the shootings.

Before long, Maura fell into an uneasy sleep, full of pain.


	4. Chapter 4

The characters do not belong to me.

**Chapter Four**

The sunlight was streaming in the window as Maura awakened the next morning. Evidently, the concussion was still healing, as were the surgical wounds, causing her tremendous pain. Shouldn't the painkillers be working better than this? Maura groaned as she tried to move and felt pain shooting through her head. It subsided as soon as straightened her neck.

"Mother?" She called in a stronger voice than the day before. All Maura could see was the bright light coming in through the window, obliterating everything else.

She turned her head away from the whiteness and opened her eyes to find herself staring at a face she thought she would never see again.

"Don't look so shocked," Jane said. "After all, you did call me in the dead of night to drive across town in the snow because of your nightmare," Jane smirked. "Not that I mind!" She stretched lazily.

Maura sat up and realized that she was in her own bedroom again, tangled in sheets from tossing and turning through her dreams. A quick glance around the room revealed that the sun reflecting off the snow was indeed causing the overwhelming glare.

"Jane," Maura began, "what day it is?"

Jane giggled. "It's New Year's Eve, silly! The night that you and my brother are going to dance the night away, like any pair of lovebirds ought to do to ring in 2011."

Maura grinned. "That's right! And you have the day off, right? Unless murder comes calling, that is." She laughed, noting how good it felt to be back in her peaceful world.

Jane nodded. "Let's hope that doesn't happen, because this is a very special night. I'm just so thankful that we're going into 2011 with everyone safe and sound. So, get up and show me what fabulous ensemble you're going to wear today!"

Maura gave Jane a big hug and walked over to her closet, debating on what to wear for a few minutes. Finally, she chose an eggplant dress and silver strappy heels.

Jane gave her a thumbs up. "Frankie will go out of his mind!"

Hours, and thankfully no murders, later, Maura and Jane met Korsak, Frost and Frankie at one of the upscale restaurants, obviously of Maura's choosing, for their New Year's Eve party.

Frost grinned. "I have to say, the Doc has excellent taste!"

Korsak rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me about those oysters again. You know how I feel about those disgusting things," he finished.

Frost returned the eye roll. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Can I interest you in a burger and fries?"

Frankie came over to Maura and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Want to dance?"

She nodded vigorously, beaming at her fiancé. "I'd love it!" He offered Maura his hand, which she took as she stood up.

"Frankie? May I ask you something?" Maura said as they started dancing to the first song. She chose her words carefully in order to not disturb him. After all, he'd been gravely wounded in the massacre, as well as Jane.

Frankie nodded. "Ask me anything, my love."

Maura looked up into his eyes. "Do you ever think about how things would be if certain events would have been... different somehow? For example, I couldn't have stayed in Boston if..."

Frankie held her tighter and Maura knew that he understood her meaning without the need to explain further. "Yes, I know." He kissed her on the cheek. "But it happened the way it happened, and we're here and safe and happy."

Maura laid her head against his shoulder. "You're right. Things are fine. It's just the dreams I've had. I don't even want to go to sleep anymore if I'm going to continue to be tormented by thoughts of what didn't happen."

They danced for a while, returning to the table with Jane, Korsak and Frost for more food and champagne, waiting for the clock to strike midnight. Around eleven thirty, Maura's head began to pound. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples.

"You ok, Maura?" Jane asked, obviously concerned.

Before she could answer, Maura looked up and saw alternating images of Jane at the party and Jane lying dead in a pool of blood outside the precinct. The same thing occurred as she glanced at everyone else at the table. When she focused on Frankie, his lips were moving, but nothing was coming out.

She stumbled as she ran from the table, blood dripping down her face. Oddly enough, the other patrons of the restaurant duct appear to notice. When she finally made it outside, loud chimes and bells began to ring as the clock struck midnight. But Maura didn't see any celebration, just dead bodies lining the sidewalk on a perfect September afternoon.


	5. Chapter 5

The characters do not belong to me.

**Chapter Five**

Maura Isles rolled over in bed as her radio alarm began to blare.

"Enough!" She muttered. Her head throbbed and she instantly regretted the previous night of champagne to ring in the new year. Her date had been pleasant enough, another doctor from the Medical College. But the entire time, she wished she had welcomed 2005 with her tortoise, Bass, and a movie at home.

"I've got to lay off the champagne," she told Bass, who had just crawled into the room to greet his mistress. "Strange and gory dreams. Let's leave that for the autopsy table, right? Good idea. And two of them, one in the fall and one in the winter. That man, Frankie, was cute, though. I have no idea who Jane Rizzoli is, anyway. And why would I ever want to live in Boston? Too cold!"

She opened the curtains to view a flawless San Francisco morning. Yes, the new year was certainly off to an interesting start.

"Happy 2005, Bass," she told her tortoise.

The End


End file.
